Father of four on his own after wife deported to Mexico

Alejandro Machain was at work one evening two weeks ago when his son called and said, "Dad, the police took Mom."

Jennifer Torres

Alejandro Machain was at work one evening two weeks ago when his son called and said, "Dad, the police took Mom."

It was about 7:30 p.m.

"I thought, 'What did she do? Maybe she hit someone in her car?'"

He called the Stockton Police Department, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, the California Highway Patrol. None of those agencies had logged an arrest at his home.

Then, a dispatcher told him U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were conducting a mission in San Joaquin County - Maria Machain was one of 10 residents arrested on immigration-violation charges Sept. 10.

By Sept. 11, she was on a bus full of women being deported to Mexico.

While, in recent years, San Joaquin County has not seen the large-scale immigration sweeps that have shaken communities and led to hundreds of deportations elsewhere in the country, immigration authorities remain active in the region.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said that Sept. 10, one of the agency's Fugitive Operations Teams arrested 10 people in Stockton, Tracy, Ripon, Manteca and Lathrop.

"Four of those were subjects who had previously been ordered deported and failed to comply," Kice said. That group likely included Maria Machain.

Two of the 10 had criminal convictions in addition to immigration violations, Kice said. Eight already have been deported.

Established in 2003, the Fugitive Operations Teams focus on finding, arresting and removing people who have failed to leave the United States or report to a detention and removal officer after being ordered to do so. Immigration and Customs Enforcement credits the Fugitive Operations Program with a dramatic increase in arrests.

The team responsible for San Joaquin County is based in Sacramento and acts on information from a variety of sources, Kice said.

Alejandro Machain believes his wife was discovered only because she recently had applied for legal residency.

Alejandro and Maria Machain are from Guadalajara, Mexico.

Alejandro Machain is a permanent resident of the United States, and for the past decade has operated a Smog Check business in Stockton. The couple married in 2001, and soon after, he petitioned for her to become a permanent resident as well.

But in 1998, Maria Machain had been caught in El Paso, Texas, trying to enter the country with someone else's green card, her husband said. She was immediately deported.

About a year later, she was caught three times trying to cross through the mountains of southeastern California. On her fourth attempt, she made it.

The couple have four children, ages 3, 4, 5 and 7.

"They just came home and picked her up and drove her away," Alejandro Machain said.

On the morning of Sept. 11, Alejandro Machain drove to Sacramento, where his wife was in federal custody. By 3 p.m., he said, she was on a bus headed for Tijuana.

About 10 p.m., he and a Manteca man whose wife was arrested in the same enforcement action left for the border.

They got there at 8 a.m., and at noon, the women were dropped off at the San Ysidro border crossing.

Alejandro Machain gave his wife money to buy a bus ticket to her parents' home and a suitcase full of her clothes.

"They wouldn't let her take anything," he said. "Not even a jacket."

For now, neighbors are helping Alejandro Machain care for his children while he calls immigration lawyers seeking help.

"The little ones, they don't understand. They just want to see Mom," he said. "They're too little to comprehend what's going on. I told them she had to go to Mexico to be with Grandma, because Grandma got sick."

Until 2004, Border Patrol agents maintained an office on Rough and Ready Island, and as recently as 2000, immigration authorities were considering plans to open a 500-bed detention and processing center there.

In the late 1990s and the early years of this decade, raids of stash houses, farm camps and at least one restaurant in the county led to the deportation of hundreds of immigrants.

"Mothers will tell me, 'My husband tells me not to sign up for anything,'" Castillo said. "We tell them everything stays confidential. Their participation in the school is really crucial, really important."

Kice said there are 95 Fugitive Operations Teams working throughout the country, including 17 in California. Five operate in the northern part of the state, she said.

Tracy-based immigration consultant Albert Villela said it's common for undocumented immigrants to be discovered after their documented spouses submit green card petitions on their behalf.

"If someone's married to someone that's here illegally, let's say from Mexico, and the U.S. citizen petitions for the spouse, they have to go to Mexico for the interview. In most cases, they're barred from returning for 10 years," Villela said. "That's been, for a long time, really a risky application to do."

Alejandro Machain said he is frustrated. "We were trying to do things the right way," he said.

He said that if his wife isn't allowed to re-enter the country, he likely will close his business and move his family to Mexico.

"It's a very difficult situation," he said. "I cannot see my kids without a mother. In essence, they're destroying families and a family's livelihood."